(Newser)
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North Korea is known for talking tough when it comes to its nukes, and remarks made by Kim Jong Un Thursday fanned the flames. While touring a museum dedicated to his father and grandfather, the self-proclaimed Supreme Leader suggested that North Korea now has a hydrogen bomb. Grandfather Kim Il Sung "turned [North Korea] into a powerful nuclear weapons state ready to detonate a self-reliant A-bomb and H-bomb to reliably defend its sovereignty and the dignity of the nation," said Kim, per the government's state news agency, via the CBC. What's worrisome, if true, is that hydrogen bombs are a much more powerful weapon than atomic bombs, the Washington Post notes.

But, as the CBC reports, it's difficult to parse truth from fiction when it comes to North Korea: Previous assertions that remain unverified include claims that it has fired a missile from a sub and that it's able to make mini nukes, per the Post. So not everyone's convinced that Kim'swords are much more than rhetorical swagger. "It's hard to regard North Korea as possessing an H-bomb," a research fellow at the Science and Technology Policy Institute notes to CNN. "I think it seems to be developing it." A weapons expert at Romania's Babes-Bolyai University is more straightforward: "I think that's virtually impossible," he tells the Post. (North Korea bragged some more at a recent celebratory anniversary parade.)

Doesn't really matter, it is what it is. By 2050 we will have 9.5 billion on this planet unless we can have a nuclear war or plaque to reduce the population. If not, then wars will erupt everywhere as people fight for dwindling resources.

Chromehorn13

Dec 11, 2015 12:11 PM CST

to borrow a line from a movie, "you'll shoot your eye out"

TwoSheds

Dec 11, 2015 6:52 AM CST

Hydrogen sulfide does not count. He has a can of beans and a book of matches.